Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
National Edition
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
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Supporting Immigrant Labor, Fighting For Their Rights
with
Pablo Alvarado, executive director, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)
and
Kent Wong, Director of the UCLA Labor Center and founding president of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance

Whether immigrants workers, documented or undocumented seek to hold crooked and exploitative bosses accountable for wage theft, and pay that is below the prevailing wage or work just too many hours for too little pay and benefits and are subject to abusive treatment to their personage, such as sexual harassment or want the freedom to push for decent jobs and organize unions without risking arrest, they deserve legal protections. Now with Trump threatening to bring a reign of lawlessness to American cities, the most precarious workers are subjected to more militarized and extensive workplace raids, mass arrests, family separation and expedited deportations.


Then there is the all-too-familiar story of scape-goating immigrant workers and deliberately pitting them against American workers as big corporations cut wages as they seek to reap bigger profits. They replace one set of workers with anotherâfrom other regions or other countriesâor by automating work. Meanwhile, CEO pay and bonuses continue to rise while workersâ wages fall. When you are scrambling to find work or getting beat out for a job by someone willing to work for less, thereâs an allure to an anti-immigrant stance. But taking that bait doesnât get us very far.

The issue may not come up in contract talks, but a safe, fair workplace regardless of immigration status is key to social inclusion, promoting economic fairness, and helping communities exercise the rights they do haveâespecially those without a say in who gets elected to office.

Migrants seeking asylum and immigrant workers arenât pulling the strings of our rigged economy. Those making the decisions that cause economic hardship can more likely be found at Mar-a-Lago, not at the border. If we donât focus on holding the ultra-rich and greedy corporations accountable, workers will continue losing. All the raids in the world will not help native-born and documented workers with job security.

This false notion that we are in competition with immigrants limits our ability to see each other, even when the collateral damage is children. At this moment, wealthy corporations and billionaires, not immigrant children and their parents, are sacrificing workers for profits. We should see this as a warning. When people are so dehumanized that forcing kids to sleep in kennels becomes acceptable, the value of life for everyone goes down. Instead of scapegoating children, mothers and fathers, we should reconnect with our humanity and demand change from the true source of our hardship: an out-of-control corporate class. Letâs be clear: We have found the culprit, and itâs not our fellow workers and certainly not children.
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Please email Building Bridges if you are broadcasting our
National Edition. We'd like to have an accurate list of which
stations are airing Building Bridges. So please let us know!
knash@igc.org


Building Bridges is regularly broadcast live over WBAI,
99.5 FM in the N.Y.C Metropolitan area on Mondays from
7-8pm EST and is streamed, and archived cast at
www.wbai.org

Building Bridges National Edition is regularly broadcast over:

WESU - Middleton, CT
KYAQ. Newport, OR
WGRN, Columbus, Ohio
KOPN, Columbia, MO
WLSL, Dade City, FL
KWRK, Fairbanks, Alaska
WMNB, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
WZBC, Boston, Mass.
WDRT, Viroqua, WI
KYRS, Spokane, WA
Liberty and Justice1640, Shirley Mass
KWTF,Sonoma County CA
KNSJ, San Diego, CA
KRFY, Sandpoint, ID
KMUD, Redway, CA
WXOJ-LP, Florence, MA
KPOV, Bend, Oregon
KONR Ankorage, Alaska
WAPJ, Torrington, CT.
WOOL, Great Falls, Vermont and New Hampshire
KKRN Bella Vista, CA
KGHI, Westport, WA
KSVR, Mount Vernon, WA
WAZU, Peoria, Illinois
Detour Network, Knoxville, TN
KMEC, Ukiah, CA
KOWA, Olympia Washington .
WWUH, West Hartford, CT
WMNF HD FM Tampa, Florida
WPVM - MAIN-FM Asheville, NC
WERU Blue Hill and Bangor, Maine
WGOT - Gainesville, Florida.
WUOW - Oneonta, N.Y.
WVJW- Benwood, WV
KRFP, Moscow, ID
KSOW,Cottage Grove, Oregon
WKNH ,Keene, NH
CKDU, Halifax, N.S., Canada
WRPI, Troy, New York
WNRB, Wausau, WI
KQRP Salida, California
East Hill Radio, Snoqualmie, WA
KSKQ, Ashland, Oregon
KWMD, Kasiloff-Anchorage, Alaska
KROV, Oroville, CA

as well as internet stations:

Chiampa Internet Radio
Global Community Radio 1, Geneva, N.Y.
WTF Radio, Bodega Bay CA
CPR Metro, NYC
Radio Free Radical
Radio Free Kansas
Radio Veronica, West Point, PA
Catalystradio.org, U.K.
WXXE
Seattle Radical Radio
Radio for Peace International
Labourstart
AmericanFM.org
Grateful Dread Public Radio
Detour Network, Knoxville, TN
KDX Radio, Homeland, North American
Radio Ear Network, Sarasota, FL
TuneIn.com
Channel One Radio
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For archived Building Bridges Programs go to
our website:
www.buildingbridgesradio.org

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